The mysterious Jerry Brooks revealed

Page through a copy of “Adventures in Comfort Food,” Rockland chef Kerry Altiero’s new (and first) cookbook and you may notice a recurring theme – dishes named for a fellow named “Jerry.” There’s Jerry Dressing, Jerry Fries, Jerry Pizza and I Dreamt of Jerry (a burger that uses Jerry Dressing as a condiment). A few weeks ago, when Press Herald reporter Meredith Goad was interviewing Altiero, chef/owner of Cafe Miranda, she made an apparently common mistake – assuming that the Jerry in question was the late Grateful Dead musician Jerry Garcia. (Altiero is a fan.) “No!” he said adamantly. These dishes, he corrected her, are named for Union resident and former Cafe Miranda waiter Jerry Brooks.

Wait, who?

KHAOS TRIUMPHS

We asked Brooks to turn the tables; if he could create a dish for Altiero, what would it be? Brooks wanted to think about that, but later sent us an email with not just a concept, as we’d intended, but an actual recipe for what he called Khaos Triumphs. We’ve included it here, mostly in his own words.

KHAOS TRIUMPHS

(Kerry + chaos = Khaos … aka Captain Khaos)

The recipe came with a caution from Brooks: “Now, bear in mind that I am (or was) just a waiter … chunky, clunky, and scruffy,” he wrote. “Not sure if this concoction would even work and I’m certain that I have violated several regions of taste and various cooking rules in the process.”

Lay out 6 large strips of mesquite-smoked beef carpaccio on a warm platter.

Place “a goodly portion of sautéed collard greens topped with roasted sesame seeds (or not)” over the beef strips. Arrange crisped gnocchi (plain gnocchi crisped in oil with the insides still soft) over the greens and seeds.

Roll up these 6 “tasty, crunchy goodies” and arrange on the rim of the platter “in an equidistant pattern.” In the platter’s center, drop “a large dollop of Gorgonzola Garlic Cream Sauce (did I say large?…I mean extra-large ladle).”

“For the grand finale … slice the carpaccio rolls into bite-size portions and drizzle Orange Beurre Blanc on, in, and around the rolls. Garnish the Gorgonzola puddle with cilantro and decorate the plate with swirls of spicy mustard and dots of Sriracha.”

We thought we’d call Brooks up and ask him a few questions about being the muse of a well-known chef. That interview, punctuated with a lot of laughter and later lightly edited, follows.

But first, the background. In the early 1990s, Brooks was working three jobs, as a landscaper, caretaker and waiter. Exhausted and hungry one evening after a long day followed by a long shift at the restaurant, he apparently sat down to a fortifying meal of blue cheese and chili sauce on bread. Altiero, a chef with an unusually imaginative palate, took this “psychedelic combination,” as he called it, and ran with it, ultimately combining blue cheese and Sriracha sauce in a number of dishes that he has served at Cafe Miranda over the years.

Q: So if I went to your house today, would I find blue cheese and Sriracha in the fridge?

A: It would have been Kerry. He opened the doors to a whole new dimension in terms of taste. Back then, when he opened (in the early 1990s), he was so far ahead of anything in Rockland. Of course, I grew up in my family, where we really like spicy food, which is odd for English descendants. And I had been in the Navy for six years down South, so I had a lot of culinary experience. But he really opened up the Thai food realm to me.

Q: What other oddball combinations do you like?

A: I don’t know if you have enough time. Tons of stuff. Anyone who knows me knows I put some wacky combinations together. I love peanut butter, jelly, Sriracha and green olives.

Q: So this is in a sandwich?

A: These days I prefer a wrap. That’s one of my favorites. Also there used to be a deli in Rockland – I’d call up and order liverwurst, green olives and sauerkraut. They always knew it was me.

Q: You’d eat these things together?

A: Well, I’m not known for finesse and taste. I kind of go for the gusto.

Q: Do you like to cook?

A: I prefer to eat.

Q: Is it good to have dishes named after you? Or would you prefer, say, an airport? A concert hall? A hospital?

A: It’s great! I love food. I don’t have much good experience in hospitals, but I have plenty of good experiences with food. Everyone thought it was Jerry Garcia initially, and they still do. There was Chicken Jerry. Panko-breaded chicken with sambal oelek and blue cheese and jasmine rice. It was fantastic, actually. It was mind-blowing.

Q: Any reaction since the story appeared in the Press Herald? Has NBC or ABC called?

A: Some friends copied the sections that had me in there. But you are definitely the first reporter. When you called, I thought, ‘Geez, the Press Herald. Did I do something wrong?’

Q: Altiero named pizza, fries and a burger for you – junk food, mostly. Is this the sort of food you still like to eat?

A: I try to be a little bit more moderate in my approach these days. I am climbing up around 50. I am trying to avoid having my waistline approach my age.

Peggy Grodinsky is the editor of Food & Dining. She can be contacted at:

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